Disclosed are systems and methods for rapid generation of simulations of a patient's spinal morphology that enable pre-operative viewing of a patient's condition and to assist surgeons in determining the best corrective procedure and with any of the selection, augmentation or manufacture of spinal devices based on the patient specific simulated condition. The simulation is generated by morphing a generic spine model with a three-dimensional curve representation of the patient's particular spinal morphology derived from existing images of the patient's condition.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for creating a visual simulation of a subject's condition, the method comprising: A) identifying at least one center point on each of a plurality anatomical structures in an image; B) deriving, from a plurality of identified center points, a curve representation of an arrangement of the anatomical structures, the curve representation comprising a set of three dimensional spatial coordinates including at least each of the identified center points of the anatomical structures; C) arranging a corresponding virtual model of each of the plurality of anatomical structures such that a center point of each corresponding virtual model corresponds to the identified center point of the corresponding anatomical structure contained within the set of three dimensional spatial coordinates of the curve representation; and D) identifying an amount of one of an angular displacement and an angular rotation of each of the plurality of anatomical structures relative to a reference point in the image.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: E) displaying the arranged virtual models of each of the anatomical structures.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein D) comprises: D1) identifying an amount of angular displacement for each of the plurality of anatomical structures relative to the reference point in the image.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein D) further comprises: D2) pivoting the identified center point of each anatomical structure virtual model by the amount of identified angular displacement of a corresponding anatomical structure.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein D) comprises: D1) identifying an amount of angular rotation for each of the plurality of anatomical structures relative to the reference point in the image.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein D) further comprises: D2) rotating each anatomical structure virtual model by the amount of identified angular rotation of a corresponding anatomical structure.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the anatomical structures are part of the skeletal system.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anatomical structures are vertebral bodies of the spine.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual model of at least one anatomical structure comprises a point cloud model of the at least one anatomical structure.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the point cloud model of the anatomical structure is not derived from a corresponding anatomical structures of the subject.
11. A system for creating a visual simulation of a subject's condition, the system comprising: a plurality of virtual models stored in computer accessible memory, each of the plurality of virtual models representing an anatomical structure and having an associated center point; an image processor unit, responsive to one or more images, operational to identify at least one center point on each of a plurality anatomical structures visible in an image; a graphics generator unit, responsive to the image processor, operational to generate from identified center points of the anatomical structures, a curve representation of an arrangement of the anatomical structures in the image, the curve representation comprising a set of three dimensional spatial coordinates including at least each of the identified center points of the anatomical structures; and a morphing processor unit, operatively coupled to the computer accessible memory, operational to access in the computer accessible memory a virtual model having a corresponding anatomical structure visible in the image, the morphing processor unit further operational to: morph parameters of the virtual model into a spatial arrangement that substantially mimics the corresponding anatomical structure visible in the image, and pivot a center point of the virtual model by an amount of identified angular displacement of the corresponding anatomical structure relative to a reference point in the image.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein the morphing processor unit is further operational to translate the center point of a virtual model corresponding to an anatomical structure from an initial value of spatial coordinates to a value in the set of three dimensional spatial coordinates of the curve representation.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein the morphing processor unit is further operational to rotate the virtual model by an amount of identified angular rotation of the corresponding anatomical structure relative to a reference point in the image.
14. The system of claim 11 wherein the morphing processor unit is further operational to scale a dimensional parameter of the virtual model by a predetermined amount.
15. The system of claim 11 further comprising: a graphics processor unit operational to display a plurality of the virtual models arranged by the morphing processor unit to mimic a plurality of anatomical structures visible in the image.
16. The system of claim 11 the virtual model of an anatomical structure is stored in the computer accessible memory as a point cloud model and wherein the morphing processor unit is operational to morph parameters of the virtual model by modifying respective spatial coordinates of points comprising the point cloud model.
17. The system of claim 16 wherein the morphing processor unit is operational to morph parameters of the virtual model by any of translation, angular displacement and angular rotation of the spatial coordinates comprising the point cloud model.
18. A method for creating a visual simulation of a subject's condition, the method comprising: A) identifying a plurality of points defining the edges of at least one anatomical structure visible in an image of the subject; B) deriving, from the plurality of defined edges, a dead center point of a shape defined by the plurality of defined edges, the dead center point comprising a set of three dimensional spatial coordinates; C) manipulating three dimensional spatial coordinates of each of a plurality of points in a virtual model of the corresponding anatomical structure relative to the derived dead center point, wherein manipulating of the spatial coordinates of each of the plurality of points in the virtual model comprises any of translating, pivoting, rotating or proportionally scaling, spatial coordinates of each of a plurality of points in the virtual model relative to the derived dead center point; D) identifying an amount of one of an angular displacement and an angular rotation of each of the plurality of anatomical structures relative to a reference point in the image, and E) repeating any of A), B) C) and/or D) for other anatomical structures visible in image of the subject.
19. A method for creating a visual simulation of a subject's morphological condition, the method comprising: A) storing, in a computer accessible memory, a plurality of virtual models each of which represents a corresponding anatomical structure, the plurality of the virtual models having a predetermined spatial relationship representing a normal arrangement of corresponding anatomical structures B) deriving, from at least one image of a subject, a subject morphology model comprising at least three dimensional spatial data identifying a spatial relationship of anatomical structures identified in the at least one image of the subject; and C) morphing, with the subject morphology model, the predetermined spatial relationship of the virtual models into a spatial arrangement which substantially mimics the spatial relationship of the anatomical structures identified in the at least one image of the subject, wherein the morphing further includes pivoting a center point of the virtual model by an amount of identified angular displacement of the corresponding anatomical structure relative to a reference point in the image.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein the virtual model of an anatomical structure is stored in the computer accessible memory as a point cloud model comprising a plurality of points defined by spatial coordinates and wherein C) comprises: C1) modifying the spatial coordinates of the points comprising a point cloud by a predetermined value.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein the predetermined value represents data values to perform any of translation, angular displacement and angular rotation of the spatial coordinates of the points comprising the point cloud.
22. The system of claim 19 further comprising: D) displaying the plurality of morphed virtual models in a spatial arrangement which substantially mimics the spatial relationship of anatomical structures identified in the at least one image of the subject.
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July 12, 2018
December 29, 2020
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